156 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of Cumberland Island, Ga. It was a revelation in many ways. The 

 night woods were literally twinkling and sparkling with eyes ! The 

 ground and low bushes gleamed with hundreds of points of light 

 from the eyes of spiders; the lagoons reflected the ruby-red of many 

 alligators, while here and there along the bank a wandering raccoon 

 stared into the light beam or a trotting gray fox paused to sniff, one 

 foreleg upraised like a pointer. Florida screech owls were seen 

 perched atop low stumps, hunched and motionless, and although we 

 could work up to within 3 feet of them, the take-off when it occurred 

 was so utterly noiseless that not a whisper of sound ensued at even 

 that close range. Dozens of deer were seen, their eyes, of course, 

 reflecting the light perfectly, and even grazing horses and cows along 

 the edges of the lagoons were as plainly noted. 



Now and then a very large pair of eyes close to the ground shone 

 out. Coming closer, we could see a chuck, sitting like a stone, staring 

 rigidly into the light. Wliile one of us held the light, the other 

 worked' around to the side and came up on the bird from behind, 

 and reaching out could pick up the staring bird with ease. We 

 examined several in this way, while they uttered a hissing note of 

 fear or anger. The birds struggled strongly while held and w^ere 

 very difficult to quiet. 



Though sharing with the other goatsuckers the characteristic habit 

 of perching lengthwise, the chuck occasionally departs from custom 

 and proves the ancient adage that exceptions make the rule. N. B. 

 Moore (MS.) writes that he has seen it perch directly across a branch 

 when the latter is an inch or more in diameter. He once "saw one 

 perch on a greenbrier one-quarter inch in diameter as cleverly as any 

 bird, though it sank suddenly under its weight for 7 or 8 inches. 

 The bird remained on it for 10 or 15 minutes." It is likely that the 

 chuck indulges in this more than one would ordinarily suppose. 

 I have seen it but once, when a bird was flushed in daylight and flew 

 to a small, gnarled oak, where it alighted among the outer twigs, 

 perching distinctly crosswise. It had two young in the near vicinity. 



In the reference already made above to Thayer's (1899) account 

 of this species capturing warblers on a ship off the South Carolina 

 coast, he noted that, on shipboard, the bird perched crosswise on the 

 rigging at times. Another remarkable character was that this bird 

 was seen, on flights out from the ship, actually to alight on the sur- 

 face of the ocean ! This is certainly phenomenal and constitutes 

 behavior that is utterly at variance with the bird's ordinary habits. 

 One more instance of crosswise perching is noted by W. S. Long 

 (1935) ; he saw a specimen near Lawrence, Kans., that indulged in 

 this posture. 



